As I read through the assigned material, I found myself constantly changing my view of an online community and all the works that were needed to build, maintain, and improve it. My initial definition of an online community was "an online setting, where people go to communicate.” That definition is now too generic for me. Online community is not only a place to for people to communicate, they also meet online and work jointly on researches, projects, and many more activities. Three points that I would like to comment on in regards to online communities are models of collaboration, developing a learning community, and the future of the Internet.
Many different models of collaboration were mentioned in chapter 12, but I would like to focus on the water-cooler setting. According to a famous study of photocopy technicians, water-cooler is the best place to transfer knowledge. The water-cooler can be compared to an online chat room, where students can easily give and receive knowledge. One disadvantage of online communication is the lack of visual cues, which can only be understood through face-to-face communication. However, I believe that the lack of visual cues can be overcome by practice.
Chapter 12, gives a brief overview of the developing process of the learning community CILT. There are three important steps in this process: define goals, understand the needs of target audience, and decide on what technology will be adequate to meet desired outcome.
In chapter nine, the author presents an interesting view on where the Internet may be going. In the future, Internet users will be consumers rather than producer as of today. Those users can be sitting on a couch using the Internet to watch television shows rather than using cable TV. As the Internet get bigger and bigger, it will be driven by big businesses rather than by users. Even today, big businesses have already started their influence on the Internet by trying to convince lay makers to take away precious bandwidth and choose which content is presented first and fastest.
5 comments:
Hi David! I like the point you have made about online interaction. You mentioned that the cons could be overcome with practice. I have never thought of it that way...just saw it as a disadvantage. How interesting that we can learn to communicate better online too, just as in a physical community- great thought! Allison
Dave
I will have to agree with you and the fact that my view of an online community was also to generic. I find it amazing the things that can be done online, from meeting up with a long friend in a place such as myspace to proving missionaries a teaching guide to use in Bolivia. The simple fact that I am able to obtain a masters from the University of Oklahoma, while never leaving my office in Durant, Ok, is in its self a small miracle. Thanks for your thoughts.
Shelly Wright
David,
I also found myself trying to better define an online community in my head. My definition of an online community was also generic and reading the article and the chapter from the book helped to clarify it for me. I also liked your discussion about water cooler talk. I think it's a great comparison to this class and how we can all exchange information and share ideas without leaving home. I never thought about becoming a better online communicator with practice. Maybe by the end of this class I will be much better at it. Thanks for the ideas.
David, I liked your discussion about the water cooler. It was helpful to me. I do miss the physical cues when communicating on-line but think I am improving as I spend more time communicating online. At times I miss the "in person" educational process and as I spend more and more time with my virtual studies I am gaining more skill at being a part of the various online communities. Julie
David,
The water cooler sometimes seems like the only place where productive dialogue takes place in my experience. It is that "just in time" model of communication. It isn't that formal dialogue is not necessary; in fact it seems to serve as the scaffolding for the informal stuff. But the informal encounters are where the action takes place. It is a way of filling in the gaps in understanding in the big framework. Maybe we should all have watercooler symbols on our blogs. :)
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